Monat: August 2016

Is Valentus A Scam That Will Leave You In Tears?

Is Valentus a scam or legit?

You might have come across this article after someone approached you at the mall to discuss a new income opportunity with you. They might have introduced you to Valentus which is an MLM company that sells coffee and other beverages as well and now you are in research mode to find out more about Valentus and whether they are a scam or not.

To start off I will say that they are not a scam, but it is very important to know as much as you can about a company before you invest your hard earned money into buying its products and building your business around them. There are so many different things to look at that will determine whether an mlm company is good or not.

An MLM company can also be called a Multilevel Marketing company where you can earn a commission from the sales that your downline has made. This will allow you to earn different levels deep within your group such as that from the referrals from the people that you referred directly below you. I will break this review down into 2 sections which are the products and the compensation plan.

Valentus products info

This is a company that sells 4 different beverages in the form of a powder that you can mix with water or milk. There are not much to say about the products because there are only 4 different products that you can buy. I will discuss each one of them below:

1. Prevail Slim Roast

This is an Italian dark roast coffee that has detox components and appetite suppressants that will also help you to lose weight. It comes in a 3 gram serving that you can mix with hot water and milk.

2. Prevail Energy

This is a concentrated powder that does not have any artificial ingredients and is great for boosting your energy. It also has a fruity flavor.

3. Prevail Immune Boost

It is also a concentrated powder that you can mix with water that has a lot of anti-oxidants. The anti-oxidants play a major role in the development and maintenance of the immune system.

4. Prevail Trim

This is a drinking powder that has appetite suppressants with ingredients that can detoxify all of the cells in your body. Detox is very important when it comes to weight loss and not a lot of people are aware of this.

Valentus compensation plan info

There are several ways to make money with this company. There also 4 different packs that you can buy in order to start your business. I will discuss the packs below:

Basic Pack. This pack will cost you $59 and will give you 50BV. Once you buy this pack on autoship you will automatically qualify as an Independent Representative (IR). You also get 1 box of supplies.

Starter. This pack will cost you $129 and will give you 100BV. You will also qualify as a Gold IR once you buy this pack and you will get 3 boxes.

Advanced. This pack will cost you $199 and will also give you 150BV. You will also qualify as a Platinum IR and you will get 6 boxes.

Business Builder. This pack will cost you $499 and will give you 400BV. You will qualify as a Ruby IR and after six months you will be an Emerald IR.

1. Retail sales

You will earn a commission rate of 25% for all the products that you sell from your personal website. To activate your website you need to pay the one-time payment fee of $20. You arey onleligible to earn a commission if you manage to generate 50BV each month.

2. Fast start bonus

Each time you enroll someone and they buy one of the packages, then you will earn a fast start bonus. If someone buys the Advanced pack and you are still in the Starter pack, then you will not earn the fast start bonus. Only if you buy the same pack in autoship will you earn? For the basic pack you will get $20; for the Starter pack you will earn $40; for the Advanced pack you will earn $50 and for the Business Builder you will earn $100.

3. Legacy Enrollment Bonus

You might have built so much momentum that you have started to enroll your first couple of enrollees. This bonus works like this. Each time when someone you refer buys a Business Builder Kit, you will earn $100. Keep in mind that for your first 3 enrollees you will not earn the extra $100.

Only from your 4th enrollee, you will start to earn $100 if they buy a Business Builder Kit. When your first level of enrollees starts to enroll new members, you will earn $100 for the first 3 that they enroll. This can go on into infinity.

4. Dual Team Cycle Commissions

For this, you will have 2 legs or teams as most people say. So each time your strong leg gets 200 points and your weak leg gets 100 points, you will get a cycle. For each cycle, you will earn $20 but you must enroll at the $499 business pack.

When your referrals get their own referrals and so on, you will realize that your teams will start to grow and you will reach a cycle at a faster rate.

What is Business Development?

Five Tips For Developing Your Business

1. Introduction

I’ve got a bit of bad news for you. The term “business development” is undefined. This lack of a definition helps to explain why one can apply for a job in business development and end up in a pure sales job, and why others think of “business development” as somewhere between sales and marketing. Despite this lack of definition, Googling the term returns 456 million results. Including the word “lawyer” only knocks the number of results down to 49 million. Among these results are websites with tips, checklists, and even entire books on the subject. All for a phrase with no definition.

I think we can do better than “undefined,” especially if this article is going to be useful to anyone. I therefore, propose the following definition, based on what I thought the term meant the first time I heard it:

[1]Business development encompasses all activities a company [2]takes to maintain or expand its customer base and ultimately sell its product or services to those customers.

[For the purposes of this definition, the word “company” includes all forms of business (think sole proprietorships and non-profit organizations); “customers” includes “clients;” and “sell” is construed very broadly with reference to non-profit organizations, as their end goal is some form of charitable giving rather than an exchange of goods for money.]Under this definition, “business development” becomes an umbrella term, with at least the following functions falling under the umbrella:

Marketing: the process of communicating the value of a product or service to customers, for the purpose of selling that product or service.

Advertising: marketing communications used to encourage or persuade an audience to take or continue to take some action.

Sales: the exchange of goods, property, or services for an agreed sum of money or credit.

Networking: to cultivate people who can be helpful to one professionally, especially in finding employment or moving to a higher position

Some Customer Service Functions: especially where the customer service agent attempts to resell or up-sell a product or thanks you for shopping with their company.

Research and Development: where the company’s products require continued upgrades in order for the business to stay competitive.

2. The Myth

Conventional wisdom suggests that successful entrepreneurs are the ultimate “one-man show,” skillfully handling every aspect of their business with the kind of competence that comes from years of training. But wait – that’s a bit of a list…and each item on the list has its own skill set…and the list doesn’t even mention the management and financial aspects of running a business…

Fortunately, this is one of those times where conventional wisdom is wrong. Our fictional works often tell the story of a person who overcame great odds to become successful on his own, but real-life success stories often involve a hero whose mentor does not die at the end of Act 2.[3][4] Here, YOU’RE the hero, trying to move your company from one phone call per week to “I need help answering the phone,” and there’s nothing that says you have to do it alone. So, what can you do?

3. The Ideal

Graduate-level programs that taught students business skills first appeared in the early 20TH century.[5] Since that time, there have been a number of changes to these programs, and schools have even introduced undergraduate-level business programs. These programs generally require the student to take a core of general classes (management, finance, accounting, etc.) in addition to a group of specialized classes in an area of their choosing. For the purposes of the business development skills listed above, marketing is the clear winner.

Why marketing? Remember, the definition we are using for “business development” is comprised of two main tasks: (1) increasing the size of your audience, or the number of people looking to obtain legal advice from you, and (2) getting as many of these people to utilize your services as possible. The skills learned in marketing program directly relate to task (1), thus giving you the best opportunity to learn how to increase the size of your audience.

Given a choice between learning these skills on the undergraduate level and the graduate level, I would personally opt for undergraduate if I knew that my only reason for going to school was to improve my company’s opportunities. Undergraduate classes are cheaper. I would not have to study for, and then take the GMAT, just to get into school. And most importantly, there may not be a significant difference between the materials covered on the undergraduate and graduate levels (at least there wasn’t when I was an undergrad) to justify the time and expense associated with a graduate degree. However, graduate classes are generally smaller and have more students who are willing to participate. This benefit alone may make a graduate program a better option for some. Therefore, I’d suggest contacting colleges and asking about these factors before making decisions regarding your education.

4. The Reality

School only provides a foundation. What one learns in actual practice – “the real world” – is often quite different from what one learns in school. The difference usually stems from the fact that theory often starts with perfect conditions and rational actors. Real life rarely presents us with perfect conditions, and sometimes people just aren’t that rational. Therefore, direct experience is vitally important if you wish to translate business education into your company’s bottom line.

One of the many ways to gain marketing and advertising experience is through event planning. In my last piece, I talked about how planning events can assist your networking efforts. This strategy only works if you can get people to show up to your event – which means that event planning is a great way to gain marketing and advertising experience that you can later use in your company. In the school setting, the student activities staff can be of immense help: letting you know what to expect, giving you information about past successful events, and even helping you to pick the right rooms. Outside of school, you may wish to speak with people and organizations that plan events (and even offer to help) in an effort to gain this same kind of experience.

Unlike advertising and marketing, sales and networking don’t have three-month classes devoted to gaining expertise in these areas. Learning to be an effective networker or salesperson is often a matter of trial and error, supplemented by books on sales techniques and overcoming objections. There are only a limited number of ways to ask for a sale or a business card, after all. As a result, the best possible option is to take on a job in sales for a limited amount of time – if you can be sure that the company in question will train you. If you can find such a person, they can help you learn what techniques work best for you, and what types of clients might be most amenable to you and your style.[6]

5. The Problem

The problem with this particular course of action is, again, time. The “ideal” path involves two or three years of classes, at least a year of sales experience, and time to meet the “right” people and have them show you how to speak with people, put together events, and sell products to people. In the interest of full disclosure, I actually engaged in all of these activities – before I became a lawyer – all in the ten-year span from my undergraduate graduation in February of 2004 to my admission to the New York Bar in February of 2014.

Coincidentally,[7] Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers popularized the idea that any person can become an expert at something if they practice that thing for 10,000 hours or ten years. Taking the time to engage in all these activities might work for an undergraduate, but it certainly works less well for someone who’s been practicing law on their own for any amount of time. Once your career gets going, you may simply have enough time to go back and pick up such a wide array of skills while trying to maintain your business.

To make matters worse, Mr. Gladwell’s work is often misquoted. Outliers actually state that a person with a talent for a thing can become an expert after ten years of practice. Imagine spending all of that time and effort to become an expert in all of the different business development skills only to find out that you’re not good at any of them. This would be a monumental waste.

6. The Solution

Fortunately, getting help to learn skills is not the only option available to you. You can also contract work out to others who are better at or better equipped to handle tasks than you are. In fact, most businesses can contract out nearly all of their functions other than management. This arrangement might not work as well for a law office, once one takes ethical rules into account, however. With respect to business development in a law office setting, here’s what I suggest:

Know Your Strengths: This heading is based off of Now, Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham. This book and its predecessor First, Break All The Rules discuss job satisfaction in terms of whether a person is doing the things that they are best at. In short, the theory is that one’s greatest chance for job satisfaction is if they spend their time engaged in things they do well. StrengthsFinder 2.0 is a tool Gallup developed based on the studies that comprise the heart of these books to help people determine what they are best at, thus leading to the best possible jobs. I would first suggest reading the book and taking the assessment test to see which of the business development skills might naturally fit in with your strengths.

Nurture Your Strengths: Rather than dealing with an entire MBA or BBA program, try to find specific classes on the elements of business development that you might be good at. You may be able to audit a class (that is, take it without getting school credits for it), and you may be able to find continuing education classes that fit the bill. During or after the class, you can also seek out an advisor who can give you tips or suggest good books to read. In the end, you still have to try your hand at your new skills to see what comes of your hard work.

Hire Others With Complementary Strengths: Let’s say that you learn you’re no good at advertising, but you want to use an advertising campaign to grow your business. You’ll need to hire someone. That person might be an intern, a paralegal, an attorney, or an outside firm specifically hired to create an advertisement for your company.[8] In every case, you can’t contract out the management responsibility, so you are ultimately responsible for the look, feel, spelling, and message in your advertising. But the actual work of creating the ad, not being your forte, is not a task you should be engaged in.

In Every Case, You Have to Learn Sales: Unlike every other skill (except maybe learning how to practice law), learning to sell is a step you must take, even if you’re not good at it. You might be able to ignore the skill if you have a partner who is a “rainmaker,” and doesn’t mind being the person who brings in the business and ultimately sells the clients on using your law firm rather than another. Unfortunately, we cannot predict the future – and there is no way of telling if a partnership will last. If it doesn’t, the partner who did not focus on his ability to sell prospective clients on their service will be at a great disadvantage if he tries to go it alone. So, try to get at least some experience in selling – cookies, flowers, something. You might not become the greatest salesman in the world, but at least you’ll have the experience.

Be a Good Attorney: There are a number of oft-told marketing rules. One of these is that if people like what you’ve done for them they will tell three other people about you. If they don’t like what you’ve done, they’ll tell ten people about you. I don’t know where this rule comes from, but there is evidence to support the idea that negative feedback has a much stronger effect on us than positive feedback does. And each of your prospective clients knows plenty of people they can tell you about. Treat one person bad, and that’s an entire network of people that may never seek you out for legal services. Treat them well, and although it may work slowly, keep up the good work and you may eventually benefit from the best marketing money can’t buy: word of mouth.

You may notice that where many articles say that you must engage in this or that activity (Facebook and Twitter pages stand out as examples) in order to attract clients to your business, I do not advocate any specific method of business development. My reason for this is that not everything works for everyone. Facebook and Twitter are essentially useless without constant updates. Networking works only if you keep in contact with people after you meet them and build relationships with those people. Even advertising can go horribly wrong. Rather, focusing your initial business development around those areas you already have some competence in and finding others to assist in areas that you are not, gives you the best chance effectively obtaining new clients.

7. Conclusion

Understanding business development is important to the success of any business. Where that business is a small law firm, the attorneys in charge must be (at least) competent lawyers, decent managers, and fair salesmen. If these attorneys are looking to expand their business by increasing their client base, they should know what business development skills they might be good at and seek to improve those skills (along with their lawyering skills). They should then hire out for those skills they might not be good at, saving them time and money in the process. Even if they sell the same percentage of clients, improving their business development will increase the number of clients the company has. They also have a second option – improve their sales skills, which will result in a higher percentage of clients choosing to hire them as attorneys.

Using this formula, it is not necessary for the small office owner to become an expert at everything. Rather, the small office owner can increase his chances of financial success by being an expert at what he can and utilizing the help and mentorship of others where he cannot.

month ago, Donald Trump’s campaign announced it was rebooting 1968. With Nixonian gusto, Trump would push the idea that crime in America was out of control, that our inner cities were a “disaster.” The strategy reached its unintentionally comic apex this morning when Trump used the shooting death of Dwyane Wade’s cousin in Chicago for tweet fodder.

If that felt like a replay of the turbulent days of ’68, check this out:

“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and [people] getting away with murder.”

That’s Colin Kaepernick of the San Francisco 49ers sounding like Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the ’68 Olympics. With Kaepernick subbing for Smith and Carlos, and Trump for Tricky Dick, we have our own versions of the adversaries of ’68 standing on opposite sides of the scrimmage line. The world has changed a lot since then. But our plunge into the sports-politics nexus feels eerily similar. All we need is a new Howard Cosell to interview everybody on TV.

Of the two statements, Trump’s was the least surprising. The only thing that was surprising was that he briefly deleted his tweet, and then resubmitted it with Wade’s name spelled correctly. In the new, gentle Trump campaign, this counts as a nonapology apologyâ—âor, to use Trump’s priapic phrase, a “softening.”

But Kaepernickâ—âwow. At last glimpse, he was completing a slow fade into oblivion by losing a quarterback competition to Blaine Gabbert. But there have been signs of an itchy social conscience. Back in December, Kaepernick used Instagram to push back at Trump’s proposed Muslim immigration ban. Now, he’s staked out a position way beyond Michael Jordan’s “brave” statement about police violence, and one with more teeth than the “system is broken” speech that LeBron James and company offered at the ESPYs. Among the big names, only Carmelo Anthonyâ—âwho wrote “No more hashtags”â—âhas invested similar capital in pushing the conversation forward.

e’ve been here beforeâ—âand not just in ’68. In 1996, the NBA suspended the Nuggets’ Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf for a game for not assuming a “dignified posture” during the national anthem. By contrast, today both the NFL and Niners released messages saying that, while they’d keep honoring the country, Kaepernick could assume any posture he wanted. That’s a lot of elbow room earned in 20 years.

The comparison to Smith and Carlos isn’t accidental. Players have begun to explicitly cite the ’60s ideologue-athlete archetype as one they want to emulate. At the ESPYs, Chris Paul ticked off Smith and Carlos, Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and others as “model[s] for what athletes should stand for.” As Kaepernick said last night, channeling Ali, “If they take football away, my endorsements away from me, I know that I stood up for what is right.”

The Kaepernick story is less than a day old. But it’s already produced a happily antagonistic political sports arena. The Giants’ Justin Pugh declared that he’d stand up during the anthem. Bleacher Report’s Mike Freeman got texts from football players backing Kaepernick and football coaches and executives opposing him. The civil rights activist DeRay Mckesson nodded at Kaepernick; a sports-media entity named Ross Tucker took a whack at him. Clay Travis did a remarkable impression of Clay Travis. And as Adam Schefter noted, Kaepernick figures to get an intense reaction in the Navy-friendly city of San Diego this week. (For his part, Abdul-Rauf was booed by Bulls fans back in ’96.)

Remember last week, when NFL players were making “controversial” remarks in the preview magazines? This seems a lot more important. I don’t demand that any athlete weigh in on the news of the day, but it sure is clarifying when they admit they’ve been having the same conversations everyone has been having for the last year.

Finally, my own pet theory is that the uptick in athlete activism has inspired, or at least cleared the road for, an uptick in activist sportswriting. If memory serves, in ’96 you could find writers defending Abdul-Rauf, but they mostly stuck to strict First Amendment grounds. And on the debit side, you could also find two Denver radio idiotsâ—âat least one of whom was wearing a turban and a T-shirt with Abdul-Rauf’s picture on itâ—âstorming into a mosque and playing “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

Kaepernick has his detractors. But members of the sportswriting class have filed full-throated defenses of both his right to speak and what he said. What was true in 1968â—âwith Cosell, Robert Lipsyte, and many othersâ—âis true again today. An athlete’s decision to sit has given us media types a chance to take a stand.

Markethive Groups The Champion of the Cottage Industry

Like Facebook, Groups is a more focused culture gathering to have topic discussions based on the Groups theme.

Unlike Facebook, Groups is the center of all the tools of the system. Let’s start with the blogging platform.

The Group blogging platform is a unique platform published to from the group members who choose to publish to that platform. The Markethive blog system also utilizes plugins so that content can be directed to one or more WordPress blogs.
This allows you to build a team of marketers all working together for a common cause contributing content for the Markethive blog platforms and WordPress distribution (reach).

SEO Backlinks management is another group function where the group organization utilizes the Backlinks system to build white hat links for specific campaigns.

Membership Management Reports: As Admin, you can review activity reports for the members in your group. Login activity, blogging in the group, Backlink activity, Massaging responsiveness, etc. Allow decisions based on activity to determine ejecting non responsive members.

Rotators: Used to distribute traffic coming to the Group blogs, or Co-op traffic to designated sites or capture pages. Or distributed traffic for any reason. Similar to the Co-op campaign is the ability to acquire leads, customers or distributor in a co-op function and distribute the leads, customers, etc. accordingly.

Group Messaging: Communication with your group members is well managed with the group function messaging system.

Replicating PDF documents:

A Markethive group is like a Cottage Industry. You can use Groups to build a startup business, a professional service, a power network marketing team, nothing like it before, like building a startup service with no overhead. This is the promise of the new Market Network (contrasted to the old Social Networks) That is exactly what Markethive is.

Case in point: Chris Corey, Annette Schwindt, Stephen Hodgkiss and I have formed a new corporation called Wavefour Inc. This corporation is negotiating a marketing campaign with a new client that is hiring us to run an agent acquisition, reach, Craigslist, capture page campaign, having the potential to create over $500k for us when we reach target. This is exactly why we built Markethive, a market environment designed to incubate, support and enable small, moderate and large business.

And Markethive Groups is the epicenter of all of this. Welcome to the new Market Network of the future. Markethive!

Valentus Specialty Chemicals

Acquires Wood Floor Finishes Business

Huron Capital Partners LLC has announced that its portfolio company, Valentus Specialty Chemicals, Inc., has acquired the wood floor finishes a business of New Rochelle, NY-based Paint Over Rust Products, Inc. The wood floor finishes business will continue to operate as Absolute Coatings, Inc. This transaction represents the third acquisition for Valentus, an ExecFactor initiative launched by Huron Capital and coatings industry veterans Ray Chlodney, John Ragazzini and Bob Taylor.

A family-owned business founded in 1923, Absolute manufactures high-performance, environmentally-friendly wood floor finishes primarily under the ABSCO, Last-n-Last, and TREK-Plus brands. A leading manufacturer of waterborne coatings, Absolute adds technological expertise to the Valentus platform along with expanded distribution in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions.

As part of the transaction, David Sherman, CEO and owner of POR Products, will join Valentus’ Board of Directors. David Sherman will retain a significant ownership stake in Valentus and will remain actively involved in leading Absolute; no other staff changes are expected.

“We believe the partnership with Absolute will significantly enhance our growth trajectory,” said Ray Chlodney, CEO of Valentus. “ABSCO, Last-n-Last, and TREK-Plus are premium brands with differentiated technologies and excellent growth opportunities, and they’re a great complement to our existing portfolio of brands at National Paint Industries (NPI). We are eager to work with David as we seek to build on the legacy that he and his family have established in the marketplace.”

“I believe Valentus is the ideal partner to guide Absolute through its next phase of growth,” said Sherman. “Valentus is committed to preserving Absolute’s family of brands, and they are investing in resources that will strengthen our distribution, product innovation and ability to serve our customers.”

“We believe Absolute is a phenomenal addition to Valentus’ portfolio, and we are fortunate to add David to Valentus’ dynamic leadership team,” said Mark Miller, Vice President at Huron Capital. “With three acquisitions in eight months, the Valentus buy-and-build model is progressing in line with our expectations. We will continue to work with our leadership team to identify and pursue strategic acquisitions as we seek to grow the Valentus platform.”

Valentus also owns National Paint Industries and Precision Technologies. These three acquisitions, Chlodney said, are poised to position Valentus as a leading provider of coatings technologies on a larger, national scale.

Inbound Marketing For Dummies "or"

When Out Bound Marketing and I separated our ways for good!

In 1996 or there about, I was approached by a well-known marketer, David D’Arcangelo. We were associates at that time in the Network Marketing business and we both lived in San Diego. He pitched me on a new deal he felt was a considerable advantage in the industry, had an organization begun (He has a large sphere of influence from his radio shows). He was proposing he run major ads in papers like USA Today, etc. and round robin the incoming leads to the new distributors. He felt that he and I could work together on this and build a sound solution for the ‘rank and file” recruits. With his name and advertising and the advantage I had because I owned a big marketing system (which came to be known as Veretekk).

I enrolled about 10 people based on this agreement and we scheduled our first tele bridged conference call. My wife Annette (my girlfriend at the time) and I were excited before the call began. On the call nothing was said about a Co-op distribution round robin. What did transpire, was David took control of the call from me, then quickly introduced his friend John Green and pitched the leads John Green was selling from CuttingEdgeMedia (This is my recollection). John Green and David claimed they were awesome pre interviewed leads and cost $20 each.

Annette immediately expressed her anger that we had been baited and switched, and the call was a disaster. I was also angered as I have always found buying leads a foolish pursuit. Ho9wever, this time< I wanted to use these leads to conduct a real survey.

I paid for 100 leads, about $2000 for the 100 super hot, pre interviewed hot ready to join my business leads. I also bought the USA Today white pages on CD Rom as a control subject.

I spent 4 weeks and tracked the results in an Excel Spread sheet. I called every lead in that database. I called everyday of the week. At 3 different times for each lead at 10am, 2pm, and 6pm. I also called Saturdays at 12 noon and 8 pm in their time zone until I actually talked to someone.

Of the John Greene leads 80% of the list was contacted. 20% never answered or numbers were disconnected or wrong numbers. Of the remaining 80% I was able to talk to 80% said very nasty profanity at me, demanded I remove them from the list, and were extremely angered and some threatened me with legal action. Even when I explained I was doing “lead” research, told them who sold them and that they were supposedly interviewed.

Not one was interviewed. Either they called me a liar or the provider a liar or said they had no recollection of being interviewed. There were 2 out of the 100 who expressed some interest in the business, but further calls were never answered and nothing ever came from these halfhearted interests.

USA Today leads

In sharp contrast I must report on the 100 names and phones numbers I pulled from the USA Today white pages disk as a control to the research. Of the 100 I called on the same routine, 97% connected. Not one of them expressed anger, called me names or hung up on me. Most of them were still not interested, but I did get 12 very interested to join and 3 actually did join.

This is Outbound Marketing

This technique to cold call is a daunting process even back in the days, even for professionals. Today it is virtually a total waste of time. When people do answer and don’t know who you are 96% just hang up. The others usually take some time to insult you. It is over. Outbound marketing is now a total waste of time and money.

It is time to understand Inbound Marketing

So I have produced this blog and video for the Dummies out there. It is Inbound Marketing for Dummies. If you are ever going to find success, you are going to have to embrace, understand and intitiate the process called Inbound Marketing.

You are in luck, because Markethive is one of the top state of the art, “Inbound Marketing” platforms in the world and it is the only one that is free!

Inbound Marketing For Dummies

By now you probably heard some of the buzz about inbound marketing. But just what exactly is it?

Inbound marketing is like marketing with a magnet vs. a megaphone. Its marketing based on quality content, that attracts a steady stream of qualified leads.

At this point and time outbound marketing has completely lost it edge. Did you know that the average person sees anywhere from 3000 to 20,000 outbound advertisements per day? No wonder no one is paying any attention.

Shouting at your audience with a megaphone is no longer the most cost-effective or productive way of marketing your business, Inbound Marketing is. The cool part is that inbound marketing methods are almost always less time-consuming and less expensive than traditional lead generation methods.

Not only are they cheaper but they are more effective. Inbound leads are eight times more likely to become customers, and close at a much higher rate. In fact while outbound marketing has an average closing rate of 1.7%, inbound marketing has an astounding closing rate of 14.6%.

All that savings means the companies that Focus primarily on inbound marketing, typically spend 62% less per lead than companies that don't. So how does it work?

Think of it like a giant funnel, prospects come in at the top, happy customers come out the bottom. Today 88% of consumers are conducting their own product research online before making a purchase.

Therefore the key to being found and trusted on the web is generating relevant content to what people are searching for. This is the first part of our inbound marketing funnel. Once you have their attention we need to capture their information.

Generally this is done with more awesome content in the form of digital media such as free offers, articles, case studies, videos, free services and more. The next part of our marketing funnel is where we create an automated system, by which we turn these qualified leads which came in from our offers into Happy paying customers, who refer more new customers because of all the awesome content you're putting up.

At Markethive we deliver inbound marketing methods such as SEO, Broadcasting, Capture Pages, Social Media, massive reach, Work Groups, Co-op Advertising videos, and so much more, to establish you as the authority in your industry, and create a client magnet that will generate a constant stream of qualified leads just for you. Let us help you to establish an online presence, attract new leads, and convert prospects all on autopilot.

An incredibly efficient fat burning ingredient, Garcinia Cambogia has received much media attention for its affect on weight loss and food consumption control. This pure ingredient is 100% natural. It is sometimes referred to as Tamarind and it grows primarily in the lush green mountains of India, Southeast Asia, as well as in Central Africa. Its primary ingredient is the dietary super supplement known as HCA, which is proven in scientific studies to stop hunger in its tracks. The tamarind fruit has traditionally been used in soups as appetizers before meals, because of the smaller portion sizes due to the limited amounts of food. Its appetite suppression qualities helped make villagers feel fuller (satiated) and the fruit would increase the workers’ fat burning skills (thermogenesis) providing an increase in energy and productivity.

Ginseng 100:1 Extract

Most young people these days are beginning to look and feel older, in some cases even hitting puberty far earlier than was the norm even one generation earlier. Ginseng is known to combat the free radicals that give the human skin mantle that look of premature aging. Valentus’ pure 100:1 extract works extremely well when combined with our other proprietary ingredients. This root is an immune system balancing super supplement that should be admired by all.
Valentus pricing L-Carnitine & Chromium

This amino acid and mineral’s main function is to help insulin carry sugar into muscle cells where it is stored as energy. A lack of chromium could cause fluctuating blood-sugar levels which trigger sugar cravings. As a carbohydrate-dependent society, increasing the amount of L-Carnitine & Chromium in our diet in our formula’s proportions will assist the body’s ability to manage its carbohydrate cravings and, in turn, assist with a successful weight management protocol.

Phaseolamin

This ingredient combines with an enzyme in the body called alpha-amylase – which is involved in the digestion of starch – and helps to temporarily block its activities. Alpha-amylase is secreted in saliva and is produced in the pancreas, and is responsible for breaking down starch into simple sugars, which can then be absorbed in the small intestine. Blocking this digestive enzyme prevents the digestion of carbohydrates, which means they are able to pass largely undigested through the gastrointestinal tract. The end result is a decrease in the number of calories absorbed, thereby helping to promote weight loss. Cassiolamine

This multi-flavonoid compound helps in the prevention of cardiovascular disease and in the reduction of high blood pressure. Cassiolamine helps to maintain healthy blood vessels by reducing the adhesion (stickiness) of blood platelets, which promotes healthy blood flow. Our pure ingredient formula also serves as an anti-oxidant, which helps to maintain a healthy heart and improved immune system. What this natural legume-based extract is mostly known for is its powerful lipase-inhibiting features, which results in the prevention of fat absorption and an effective carbohydrate blocker.

Green Tea 100:1 Extract

Green tea contains 2% to 4% caffeine, which affects thinking and alertness, increases urine output, and may improve the function of brain messengers. Caffeine is thought to stimulate the nervous system, heart, and muscles by increasing the release of certain chemicals in the brain called neurotransmitters. Antioxidants and other substances in green tea have been shown in studies to help protect the heart and blood vessels additionally.

Chlorogenic Acid

This is the main active ingredient in Green Coffee Bean and is a powerful thermogenic fat burner. It holds promise in many aspects of health and cognition similar to bioflavonoids and shares some effects similar to caffeine, but less potent. Studies show that Chlorogenic Acid may also decrease the absorption of dietary carbohydrate, as well as provide anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits. Dark Italian Roast Arabica Coffee

It is also known as the “coffee shrub of Arabia”, “mountain coffee” or “Arabica coffee”. Arabica coffee is believed to be the first species of coffee to be cultivated. The earliest credible evidence of either coffee drinking or knowledge of the coffee tree appears in the mid-15th century, in the Sufi Muslim monasteries around Mocha in Yemen. Arabica coffee production in Indonesia began in 1699.

High-quality Arabica is beautifully fragrant, sweet and round, with a slight and pleasant acidity, with just a mild hint of bitterness.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Networking

In today’s techno technology-obsessed, social media and networking have become an intricate part of daily life. Social networks are websites and phone apps that allow people to create a personal profile, upload pictures of their life, update their status, and share information. These are very powerful mediums that have the ability to cause some great things, as well as some very bad things, to happen. Let’s look at all of the pros and cons surrounding social networks.

The Advantages of Social Networking

1. Staying In Touch
As we grow older, friends, family, and people that we knew, move away and it is very easy to lose touch with them. With social networks, this problem is essentially solved. It is extremely simply to find people on social sites, and once you do you can add them to your friend's list and always be able to instantly communicate with them, as well as keep up with what is going on in their life.

2. New Connections
Meeting people can be difficult when the internet came around the dating world changed completely to try to fix this problem. Social networking is possibly the number one way that people met new friends or romantic partners in today’s society. Profiles and interests allow you to “pre-screen” a person beforehand to see if there are any deal breakers.

3. Aids In Criminal Cases
Whether people are aware of it or not, what they post on social media can very easily be used against them if they were to get in trouble with the law. Someone who is selling drugs, and may be posting about it on their social networks, can be caught in this way. This also applies for someone who gets caught drunk driving and was posting pictures of them at the bar moments before.

4. Gives Shy People An Outlet
Communication doesn’t come naturally to many people. If someone is very reserved or shy in their normal day to day life, social networking can be an outlet for them to share their ideas and thoughts with other people in a comfortable environment.

5. Connecting Kindred Spirits
Finding someone who is interested in all of the same things that you are can be tough, especially if you are interested in something unique. Social networking allows you to connect with entire groups of people who are interested in the same things as you, helping to grow friendships and enrich lives.

The Disadvantages of Social Networking

1. Cyber Bullying
Bullying has been a problem among young people, and even adults, for as long as we can remember. However, when social media came around, this bullying was taken to an entirely different level. Cyber bullying is when a person is continuously bullied through online accounts. Cyber-bullying is such a problem because it can be 24/7 harassment, and it can also be done anonymously.

2. Misinformation Spreads Like Wildfire
Social media has become the number one source of news and information for the majority of people. I know this may sound scary, but I assure you, it’s true. People will read something and immediately take it as truth, and spread this information on to their friends, and so on and so forth. This can cause major falsities to taken as real life headlines.

3. Easy Prey
People are always “checking in” with their exact locations on social medias, advertising where they work, and providing much more sensitive information. Predators, such as rapists, can also obtain this information and easily identify where they can find you at any given time. This is a large danger. The danger is also spread on to the children, who may not have much of a clue of who is okay to speak with and who is not.

4. Less Real Life Interaction
Twenty years ago, if it was someone’s birthday you went and saw them in person, or sent them a birthday card. Today, however, we simply write a quick little message on their Facebook wall and leave it at that. All of the interactions that we have with people have become incredibly in personal.

Important Facts About Social Networking

28 percent of all news is obtained through social media websites.

The average person spends nearly 4 hours a day on social networking websites! That’s a whole lot of time.

Strategies for SMB's to Build Trust with
Consumers Online

There are few things more important than trust. When customers give you their personal information, along with their payment details, they are taking an action based on a trust in your brand or service.

With more than $158 lost per record in instances where hacking results in the loss of sensitive customer records, according to IBM, trust becomes increasingly relevant.

Creating strong security protocols and enforcing those standards across your entire organization is critical for long-term growth and prosperity. Below we’ll take a look at some strategies your SMB can use to build and reinforce trust with consumers in virtually any market.

1. Focus on Evoking Emotional Reactions to Your Marketing

Consumers love to feel loved. We live in the digital age where the majority of communication involves a smartphone, tablet or computer. When a brand manages to reach through the digital nature of communication and strike an emotional chord, consumers feel connected to that brand.

Connections are part of the key components of trust. According to an article published by Entrepreneur.com, trusted brands like Coca-Cola have one thing in common: "Everything they do is inspired by this idea of, how do we promote, develop and create happiness?" A sense of contentment and joy can trigger a sale more easily than logic. Humans are emotional creatures. Find a way to tap into that emotional core with a genuine message. Your sales team will thank you.

2. Reinforce a Consumer’s Sense of Security

The vast majority of consumers feel safe conducting business online. For E-commerce sites, it’s increasingly important that their web presence complies with industry norms. For example, according to Ecassoc, “The top thing to look for in an online retailer is SSL certification or anti-virus protection, but SSL is ideal. This tells you that hackers can’t get at your credit card or PayPal details and your identity is protected.”

Companies need to invest in the costs associated with providing a current SSL certificate. Other trust indicators can include site badges that show endorsements from respected site security leaders. For example, Norton and GoDaddy both offer website security endorsements for subscribers to their platforms. These third-party endorsements offer consumers a sense of security when interacting with your site.

In addition to SSL certificates and trusted site badges, your company needs to focus on responding and resolving customer complaints quickly. When issues do arise, nothing restores trust faster than quick and comprehensive responses to customer concerns. This means that your customer service team needs to both have the ability and the power to fix issues and provide a total customer solution.

When customers pick up the phone, send a message, or complete a transaction online, there is an opportunity to earn trust. Don’t let the opportunity be wasted with low-security websites and poor customer service.

3. Follow Up and Inspire

After a customer makes a purpose, many brands forget that the customer ever existed. This is a fatal mistake. In my company, I noticed that 40 percent of our sales resulted from repeat customers. By focusing our team on curating follow-up emails that inquired about the customer’s experience with our product, I found that we experienced a major boost in revenue.

When customers feel like they’re genuinely cared for, both before, during and after the sale, follow-up orders are placed. In fact, some of my customers tell me they don’t even consider looking elsewhere. We’ve proven ourselves and we’ve shown that we care about our customers as human beings.

But, here’s the problem. 80 percent of sales require five follow-up calls after the meeting. Forty-four percent of sales reps give up after one follow-up. Prospects lead busy lives. Between social media, emails and the million other fires that need to be put out over the course of a week, it’s easy for customers to lose focus. Your sales team can never lose focus.

In a respectful, but a focused manner, your team needs to follow up with consumers at every stage of the sale. This will result in relationships being built and a sense of trust being established. The strongest performing members of your sales team will have the ability to identify opportunities for your customers and find solutions to those opportunities before presenting them to your customer.

Show customers you care by inspiring them to find a way to use your product or service. Follow-up on a regular basis, because chances are they’ll forget all about your product or service without personal attention. Create a site that reinforces your trustworthiness and creative marketing campaigns that evoke an emotional connection to your brand.

Business Development

What does it mean?

Who is it for?

Is it the same for everyone?

Having now worked in a number of roles that you might consider as business development (BD), I thought I'd start my publishing journey on LinkedIn (this is my first post) with a bit of reflection. I often get asked what the difference between straight selling and BD is, so I thought I'd try and define the differences (for my own sake, if nothing more!).

To some degree, they're different sides of the same coin. Selling and BD go hand in hand. There have been roles where I've been strictly selling, others where there is a combination of sales and BD, and also in roles that I would consider true and pure BD.

In all, however, I've had some link to what would be considered BD within that particular business. So the answer to the header title is no, I think; BD is different for everyone and every business, dependent on a number of factors – budget, a size of a workforce, attitude to BD, etc.

What is 'true and pure' BD?

The sales process is one that involves a lot of people – product development, designers, pricing, marketing, technical, management – 'front-line' salesmen and 'top-end' management need to combine forces to deliver a product that their customers want.

If you walk into a shop to buy a pair of trainers, for example, this has been designed from the early stages by trained footwear designers, manufactured from these designs in a production process of sorts (industrial or bespoke, depending on the brand), marketed in the appropriate manner to raise awareness of the product, eventually landing on the shelves of the shop you're in, with a friendly guy/gal willing to help you transact some business when you make the decision to buy them.

So where does BD fit into this process? What's it all about then? The foremost word that comes up in the BD world is 'relationships'. That's pretty much what it's all about. Good business development will help identify, maintain and encourage relationship building within a firm, building rapport with both suppliers and customers.

It helps strengthen the bonds between these links, supporting the marketing copy and material that establishes your product in the relevant marketplace. It helps provide information as to what the client needs to the 'front line' sales team, assisting them in closing the deal at the end of the process.

It helps inform management as to how the market is moving, providing insights into new developments of technology, social media and other digital avenues that the firm can take advantage of, to build and maintain loyalty. It helps small companies access bigger markets and large companies engage newcomers. So my definition of 'true and pure' BD is 'helping a business to develop its relationships'. Plain and simple.

It's networking on a daily basis; attending cutting-edge events to learn about the industry you're working in; finding (er… stalking?) people on LinkedIn to see what events they're attending and making sure you meet them there, in person, so that you can have that all-important introductory chat; it's offering your loyal customers something more than a newsletter – why not run a seminar and invite them along to it? They might be happy to be invited.

The personal touch is always a winner. We hear more and more now about relationships marketing, social currency, engagement, etc. BD is the platform that most of this is built on.

Who is it for?

As I've mentioned before, I've worked in roles that have been classed as BD but have really been sales. I've worked in hybrid roles where you might do a bit of both. And I've worked in the 'true and pure' BD roles to.

What this has shown me is that BD has a place in every business. You can't 'develop' your business without a good BD strategy.

So whether you're encouraging your front-line staff to sign up to a few newsletters, or get yourself down to a few networking events, or join a LinkedIn group and start up a discussion, BD is something that can't be overlooked.

It's all very well to have a great product and a nicely designed website, with some great leaflets and a slick business card but, without the right approach to BD, no one is going to see it in the way you want to.

Having worked as a supplier to a lot of startups and growing SMEs, the one thing that I've noticed which has set apart the successes from the failures is their approach to BD.

Develop the relationships – build a community around your business and your product just needs to do what it says on the tin. The rest will fall into place and you'll have a strong, loyal customer base who are happy to sing your praises.

For that reason alone, if nothing else, BD is essential for pretty much any business going.